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Content with tag epigenetic regulation .

Changes in melanocyte RNA and DNA methylation favor pheomelanin synthesis and may avoid systemic oxidative stress after dietary cysteine supplementation in birds

Cysteine plays essential biological roles, but excessive amounts produce cellular oxidative stress. Cysteine metabolism is mainly mediated by the enzymes cysteine dioxygenase and ?-glutamylcysteine synthetase, respectively coded by the genes CDO1 and GCLC. Here a new hypothesis is tested posing that the synthesis of the pigment pheomelanin also contributes to cysteine homeostasis in melanocytes, where cysteine can enter the pheomelanogenesis pathway.

Gyrfalcons Falco rusticolus adjust CTNS expression to food abundance: a possible contribution to cysteine homeostasis

Melanins form the basis of animal pigmentation. When the sulphurated form of melanin, termed pheomelanin, is synthesized, the sulfhydryl group of cysteine is incorporated to the pigment structure. This may constrain physiological performance because it consumes the most important intracellular antioxidant (i.e., glutathione, GSH), of which cysteine is a constitutive amino acid. However, this may also help avoid excess cysteine, which is toxic. Pheomelanin synthesis is regulated by several...

Epigenetics, human malaria, and mosquitoes

Plasmodium falciparum phenotypic plasticity is linked to the variant expression of clonal multigene families such as the var genes. This study examined changes in transcription and histones modifications that occur during sporogonic development of P. falciparum in the mosquito host.